A BUSINESSWOMAN who set up her own salon has sold it to her former employees.

Sarah Simpson opened the Loft Beauty Rooms at Orton Grange, near Carlisle, in 2008.

Originally a sole trader, she soon expanded and eventually had three staff.

She said: “I have been there for eight years, I set it up on my own and I have worked to build it up.

“We offer pretty much the full range of beauty treatments like facials and massage and we also do a lot of wedding make-up.”

Her success was noticed and in 2009 she took the young entrepreneur prize at the CN Group Business Awards.

Now though, her priorities have changed and she is looking to take her career in a very different direction.

“I have got three young children – they are four, three and 16 months old – and I want to kind of step away from being full time with the business and putting all my energy into it,” she said.

Mrs Simpson, 32, who lives in Newton Arlosh, has sold the firm to two of her staff – Paula Brown and Hayley Sewell.

She has plans to continue working in the salon though.

“It is just the running the business side of it I do not like,” she said.

“I will be continuing to work for the girls but it will just be me going in and doing my work.”

She also joked: “It is going to be very strange.”

Alongside this, Mrs Simpson also has plans to offer treatments from her own house.

This is not her only plan for the future though.

She said: “I never wanted to be in the beauty industry forever, I always wanted to leave at some point.

“I have enrolled at college to train as a primary school teaching assistant.”

This course will run over the next year, after which she hopes to find work in the classroom.

“My husband Mark is a self-employed agricultural engineer and he is happy with whatever I decide to do,” she said.

Mrs Simpson added: “I want to wish the girls all the best – it is my business, I developed it so I want to see them have success with what they do.”

Miss Brown, 27, who lives in Belle Vue, Carlisle, said: “I have been there since six months after it started and it is good to be taking over.

“We will probably be keeping things more or less the same.”